Here's a first in baseball merchandising.
The Lexington Legends — the Kansas City Royals new Class A affiliate based in the South Atlantic League — recently unveiled a brand new color scheme, uniform design and logo to coincide with their affiliation change. And when we say brand new, we mean it, because Lexington will become the first minor league baseball team to wear cream, royal blue and kelly green color combinations.
That's unique to say the least.
Oh, and we should also mention they'll become the first team to feature a mustache logo all by itself on one of their three new hat designs, because let's be honest, who wouldn't want to own or wear a hat prominently featuring a mustache?
"Minor League Baseball is all about the 'wow' factor, and we wanted to go beyond the normal stuff you'd see at the ballpark," said Hall of Fame namesake Ty Cobb, the Legends director of creative services and graphic designer. "And we wanted to be the team to do this first, to have a mustache on a hat. Our mascot, he actually has a mustache, so we're not just hopping on a fad. ... We're going to be easily recognizable when on the road. Fans can just look at the mustache."
Yes, his name is really Ty Cobb. And yes, they definitely succeeded in delivering on the wow factor, because again, their secondary logo is a mustache. But that part aside, they also delivered during the grand unveiling ceremony by having their mascot and motivation for the new logo, the mustachioed Big L, repel 410 feet down the side of the Lexington Financial Center while wearing the new designs.
"Big L's like Superman," Cobb said. "He was walking around in the old [uniforms] beforehand, and then came down as a new person."
Needless to say, Ty Cobb knows a thing or two about garnering attention and publicity for his squad. He pulled out all the stops on this one.
As for the Legends' primary logo in 2013, general manager Seth Poteat says that will still feature a scowling Big L with baseball bats crossing behind his head, so they haven't strayed too far away from their identity. But at first they weren't even sure if they wanted to update or tweak the logo at all as a part of the design updates.
"It started as kind of a joke," said Poteat. "But the more we talked about it, the more we said 'Why not?'"
Why not indeed. Because honestly, don't all brilliant, money-making ideas begin as a joke or by accident anyway?
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